bon iver. live in tucson. with megafaun. it happened.

by diana deaver

“bon iver” (or, more correctly, “bon hiver,”) means “good winter” in french.
i hate winter.  like, seriously hate it.  
want to see fury?  take me to some snow.  turns out though, the only thing the two (bon iver and “good winter,”) have in common, are the ability to make me want to cry and cuddle. 

bon ivergood winter music.  

that being said…   despite “guest list” status,* (a beautiful, beautiful thing, even when you are in the financial situation to joke with your bank teller, “i’m living dangerously!” and NOT have him give the straight-faced reply, “yes.  you really are.”) i just wasn’t feeling like leaving the house monday night.
that’s another thing i hate most of the time – leaving the house.  
it takes effort, and i have a lot of awesome things at home that i like to stare at.  
and a friend who conveniently needed/demanded a ride somewhere that was not the venue at the exact same time megafaun (the opener) went on.  

but something compelled me to go anyway. (fear of the wrath of an abandoned amber post-show?)  
um, can i just say that this is one of those amazing moments in my  life where i can say, “i made the right decision?”
  

something beautiful

not megafaun, but that’s ok – because it’s bon iver

(another thing i did monday evening was hear that megafaun was freakin’ amazing – but i wouldn’t know this for a fact, so you should ask amber about it.) 

bon iver?  the show was – dare i say it? – practically… epic.  
amber and i clutched each other and cried, and were (nearly) oblivious to the pain in our feet from balancing in 4″ heels on an ancient, angled theater floor for three hours.   

makes you not feel foot painthe events pictured above create a scientifically unexplainable condition in which the shoes
shown in the photo directly below do not cause pain to the wearer-
while listening and sometimes even up to 4 hours after.

ambersome Serious Bargaining has been going down at the house all week, over this dress.

 

wait!  i wore a dress too guys!  look at me, too!!  look!

i wore a dress too!

wedges: the preferred shoe choice

the last thing i did – obviously- was over-use my camera, for both photographic and video purposes.  just for you. and because i really really like going home and looking at pictures of things i just participated in.  (seriously.)

as for the “video” portion that i mentioned? 
that’s why this is posting thursday afternoon, not tuesday morning as i’d originally dreamed.
don’t even ask how many hours i’ve spent with youtube and my camera this week. let’s just hope this comes with a video-filled follow-up post… or at least some links.

and if bon iver is coming through your town, go see ‘em!  no excuses!

 

* emilie + erin – i/we love you.   no, like really love you.  as in, may we have your babies and marry you?  possibly not in that order?

dress of the week(ness of knees) club

(by diana deaver)

solar culture

amber and i don’t really have a whole lot to do other than put on pretty things and lounge around in awkward places.

that’s a total lie.
i actually have a whole “to do” list – ahem, notebook – waiting for some attention, but seriously, if you were being propositioned by both a Mead five-star and this handsome fellow (the DRESS.  the person in it isn’t a “fellow.”) who would you choose?

amber in The Dressfor the record, i used to entertain the idea that i would feel pretty in this dress.
that was until amber borrowed it and i realized it had been hand-sewn by a million tiny angels, 
each singing her name in perfect harmony.  
oh gag me.  and stop being so freakin’ perfect in all MY clothes, amber!!  DO YOU HEAR ME?!


i can deal though.  i’m cool like that.  a lot of the “cool like that” being hinged on the fact that i also own this dress, so i didn’t have to stay at home, alone and poorly clothed:

diana's new favorite dress

an interesting fact about this dress:

one of the sweetest girls i’ve ever met, named sarah, who lives in close proximity to the city of fresno, gave me this dress a few months ago – after offering up her very comfortable home as a place for me to stay on my way through her town. she had never met me prior to this.  i could have been a complete lunatic.  

i’m still not making any promises that i’m not.  (a complete lunatic.)  but this dress might complete me…  

close-up time!!

the dress... again!

yep…  still kinda hate her for rockin this dress so hard.

of course!!  
thank you again/for the billionth time/etc., to one of our most favorite men in the world, mr. ryan mihalyi, for his photographic genius, (it goes without saying, but the good ones are his handiwork.  the not-so-good ones?  we had a homeless man take those…)

also?  we love you guys!!!  have a fan-freakin-tastic friday!

check me out: hard driving

Usually, when phrases like “my popsicle melted” or “hard drive failure” are used, you expect to hear a particularly boring sob story with many uses of the word “suck.” Mine is different: more boring, less sob.

On the morning of the fateful day in question, I had decided to finally break out the external hard drive which had been sitting off for a month and a half while I wandered the country aimlessly. I needed it to back up my 3 year old laptop and then begin the annoying task of transferring files so my brimming hard drive would not burst. I’ll spare you the details, but needless to say, that is exactly what happened. Hard drive failure.

This was a good thing (no, I am not on drugs) although I could not have known it at the time. I made an appointment at the Apple Store, fully expecting to go into debt over this thing. Not to be.

There is this thing that is rad? It is called The Genius Bar.

Genius: “When was the last time you backed up?

Me (feeling like a genius): “This morning. Time Machine is the best invention since Pay-at-the-Pump.”

Genius: “Oh good, so I won’t have to give you any bad news regarding data recovery then.”

Me (definitely not a genius): “Guess not, but you must have good bedside manner.”

Genius: “Heh… Yup. Yes, you definitely need a new hard drive… (checks his monitor) but oh, what’s this? Looks like we don’t make the 80g anymore, we’ll have to upgrade you to a 120g. Hope you don’t mind.

‘Oh, you have a chipped top case.”

Me: “Uhhh oh. OK. How much more will that cost me??

Genius: “Well, let’s see here. You’re not under warrantee any more and you don’t have Apple Care, but you’re still covered.”

Me: Still… covered…? Wow… um… ok…

Genius: “So just go ahead and sign this piece of paper that says, $0.00 on it and we’ll get that fixed up for you by tomorrow.”

Yeah. My computer is now better than new. Literally.
This is what I was wearing.
floral mini dress
floral minidress

mixed florals flapper dress: thrifted in Tucson
feather headband: Sewsephine on Etsy
sheer granny socks: a gift from Neneee
leather maryjanes with stacked wood heel: MustHaveShoes.com

The next day, the nice Genius that helped me asked me to dinner (maybe he enjoyed my joke about beds).
I honestly feel like I’ve drained all my allotted good kharma from this dress. I hate to do it, but considering that there is currently an ominous $6.66 in my checking account, it is time I share this frock and its infinite good kharma with another Lucky Lady. Check out our Painfully Hip Etsy.

Painfully Here: Our First Roomie Shoot

After a very busy weekend, we finally got a chance to play dress-up with Diana’s closet (since mine has now shrunk from “walk-in” to “portable”) and chisel out our favorite fall trends. This, as fellow Tucsonans know, is a hilarious feat in early September. The relaxed look on my face is a SHAM, it was 96 degrees and not a good day for boots and sweaters and hats. However, fun was had… and not just by our on-looking neighbors with the cooler of High Life.

These were all taken in and around our new house – a veritable paydirt of textures and colors that any photographer would covet. Perfect! (Click on photos to get to the Etsy listings).

sundress to fall dress

sundress to fall dress

black ruffle dress

keepers - 172

waitress dress

hip prairie blouse outfit

Photos by Diana Deaver
Styled and modeled by Amber Mortensen